AWAY DAYS FROM GRAVESEND & NORTHFLEET

Having been unable to persuade Mrs Urwin to undertake a 550 mile round trip by car(very unreasonable in my view) to Gravesend & Northfleet it was a long train journey ahead for me.

Who in their right mind sets their alarm clock for 5.30am on a Saturday morning for something that is described as a hobby, oh well the psychiatrist will be getting a call as it is clear I need help!

I am used to getting up early for work during the week but the first thing I noticed for the first time in ages was that it was dark at this hour in the morning and actually walking to Ainsdale station for the 6.07 in the dark was a reminder that winter is around the corner. The journey from Ainsdale to Liverpool Central was uneventful and I had a carriage to myself until we got to Waterloo. It amazes me how Merseyrail Electrics can put six carriage trains on at such an unearthly hour but at peak time during the week I am regularly crammed in and standing up in a three car crush.

Arriving at Central, I made the short walk across to Lime Street ready to catch the 7.14 to London. I was expecting more people to be around but is was very quiet. The carriage I was in saw about 20 people in it and we had a very peaceful journey down except for a snoring nun who kept the passengers amused with her continual barrage of zzzzzzzzzzzzzz's! I also achieved hero status in one man's eyes. He couldn't believe that anyone would travel by train to watch Southport in Non-League football at a ground 250 miles away. I told him there would be a few making the trip if not by train then by car. He came back to me as I was getting off and wished me luck and said he would watch out for our results from now on and think of me! Ahh!  The train arrived in London bang on time and I made a quick dash down the Northern Line to Charing Cross to hopefully catch the 10.32 to Northfleet. I made it with a few minutes to spare. It seemed to take ages to get from CC to Northfleet as the train was the stopper but I arrived at 11.25 as planned. On getting off the train I spotted 5 other Southport fans who had made the journey out of London. We got to the ground at 11.30 and I had a good walk round. It was ground number 143 for me (121 watching Southport) and the £12 entry was better than the £16 last week. It was a scorcher, I had noticed that Gravesend had been the hottest place in the country for 3 days in the previous week and it must have been close again, I heard someone say it was 30 degrees and it felt it. I managed to get a few photos for the grounds collection, read the programme (£2.50) which was greatly enhanced by an article called "Fans Eye View" by me! I did offer to sign a few copies but no-one took me up. The daughter duly turned up with her boyfriend before kick off. At least these Southern based games give me a chance to see her every now and again during her year in London. The ground was ok but needs a lot of work doing on it to bring it up to standard and I am sure the club are grateful to the promised grants to help them make the required improvements. One end is virtually cordoned off, reminiscent of Haig Ave in the dark days.

The 12.30 kick off came and everybody seemed quite subdued, whether it was the heat, the early kick off or what I don't know it just didn't seem to have much atmosphere. We conceded another goal from a corner and could have conceded a few more before Leady scored a goal on the break after a great pass by Lynchy. The first half was livened up by the steward who seemed to take exception to our fans teasing the keeper about his pink towel. It got to the point were she called for back up and the ground safety officer was called. We told him the crime was shouting at the goalkeeper. He raised his eyebrows and had a word with the steward! After our goal we were never really in it. A few half chances but in all honesty G&N controlled the second half and ran out worthy winners. We looked tired  My MOTM was Carl Baker who looked the most likely to break the defences down with Dicko a close second. I counted 58 Southport fans in attendance that I knew were Southport fans, probably split 50/50 between those from Southport and those living "darn sarf"

If ever there was more evidence needed that football should be regionalised (my personal soapbox) today was it. The gate of 813 was G&N's lowest by over 500 admittedly not helped by the early kick off but they had won their last two games well. The team had travelled the day before having to pay for an overnight stay. Yes pro clubs can afford it but can the part-timers sustain it? Our away followings have been well down on last season 90 at D&R 77 at Kidderminster and 58 today. I remember our first game back in the NPL after relegation, over 200 made the short trip to Wakefield. where are those fans now? I have long said that regionalised football in the lower reaches of the leagues is the answer, I am sure if we had played Alty at 12.30 there would have been more than 58 fans at the game. Look how many went to Droylsden for the early kick off last year. The pro teams will say it's up to us to go full time but we all know we can't afford that with the poor home support we have. Looking at the gates this season I also sit and wonder how long it will be before a lot of the clubs that are full time in the Conference get into financial troubles.

Anyhow back to the day. We went straight back to London after the game, I travelled back with Martin Robinson the sole member (I think) of the Brighouse branch of the Southport Supporters Club. Martin had  made the journey from Huddersfield by train and had also faced an early start. We reminisced over some of the years we had spent watching Southport and the journey back seemed much quicker. Martin went off to Kings Cross and me to Euston. Once again it was very quiet probably down to the England game being on TV. I had an hours wait at Euston for the 17.03 in which time I was mistaken for a Crystal Palace fan. It took a few seconds to work that one out but I soon put the man straight!

The train back up north was eerily quiet. The journey back to Crewe was great but then due to engineering work you get a diversion around Warrington which adds an hour to the journey time so it was 8.45 by the time I got back to Liverpool. A quick dash to Central and I managed to get the 8.53 to Ainsdale, getting home 15 hours 35 minutes after setting off. A quick word of praise for the much maligned British public transport system. Every train and tube that I caught today ran to time , for such a long journey I was well impressed. I was worn out. It was a very quick update on the website and straight to bed. I must have been tired as the missus told me in the morning that I had slept through an impromptu fireworks display!  The total cost of the day for travel, entry and programme was £47.30. Was it worth it? Of course it was but I won't be doing it too often. Now let's see where we are playing next week, Woking, and another train journey! My quest to go to all the grounds in the Conference that I haven't been to before is very definitely being tested in September, G&N, Woking and Canvey Island in a month will push it to the limit.

I got to thinking that today's trip was possibly the longest I have ever undertaken in a day by public transport. I've certainly done longer by car but not rail.

Reading the NLP on the Sunday was refreshing, Liam doesn't make any excuses, he accepts we weren't good enough and deserved nothing out of the game, the guy really is held in very high regard by me, it's lovely to know your manager is an honest person who tells it as it is. A nice change indeed.